Superman and the Mole-Men

Considering it was shot in 11 days; considering its "special effects" are something less than primitive, George Reeves and this film still pack a Kryptonite-sized wallop.

Mysterious Mole-Men emerge from "the world's deepest oil well," and scare the inhabitants of the nearby town of Silsby. Despite pleas for tolerance and patience, Superman must disarm the town and protect the aliens while hard-headed Luke Benson repeatedly tries to kill them.

FACTOID #1: Despite other accounts, this film was NOT a "pilot" for the eventual series. In fact, there WAS no pilot. The day after shooting wrapped, the company spent another 12 weeks shooting 24 half-hour episodes. The comic book company decided to include a feature film as part of the schedule, so they'd be sure to recoup their investment at the box office in case no one bought the series. Lucky for us, that didn't come to pass.

FACTOID #2: Although the two-part TV version, "Unknown People," had been edited and packaged with the other 24 half-hours, it had to be withheld during the series' original run. It had been produced in 1951, and SAG rules forbade films copyrighted after 9/48 to air on TV without residuals. Not until 1960, when the rules were revised, did "Unknown People" appear.

We got our first television in 1951, the year that this movie "Superman and the Mole Men" came out. I was 7 years old at the time and of course we were always glued to the kids programs especially all the cartoons etc on Saturday morning.

One of my favorite programs that aired every Wednesday night at 7:00PM, sponsored by Kelloggs cereals, was Superman. We watched every episode religiously.

At the end of each episode there were a few scenes from what was going to be shown the following week. A few times they had some scenes from this movie, "Superman and the Mole Men" but for some reason it was never shown. Reading some of the other people's comments about this movie explained to me what the reason was.

However, the scenes that were shown really had me interested in seeing this movie. One of the scenes that was shown was the little girl in bed reading her book and then all of a sudden the two mole men peer in through the window and she eventually starts to play ball with them.

Another scene was the two mole men on top of the dam and Luke Benson and his cohorts trying to shoot them.

The third scene really scared me. It was when the mole men had that weapon (looks like a modified vacuum cleaner) and were firing it at Luke Benson.

This movie reminds me quite a bit of when "War of the Worlds" was aired on radio in the 1930's. Everybody was scared out of their wits because they couldn't understand anything else except the human race. Well this movie basically reveals the same message. People are afraid of the unknown.

I have always associated George Reeves with Superman. It bothered me when Christopher Reeve was give that honorary position in his full length features of Superman. I didn't even know, until 4 or 5 years ago that Kirk Alyn was really the very first Superman, even before George Reeves.

As has been said, this movie is in its own way is a classic and will be forever etched in movie history as ONE G-R-E-A-T MOVIE!

Superman and his supporting cast of characters have been portrayed on the silver screen, the small screen and the stage by a number of actors and actresses. However somehow no one can play the man of steel and the Daily Planets star female reporter Lois Lane quite like George Reeves and Phyllis Coates. Certainly no one can portray Superman's alter ego Clark Kent like Reeves did. This film has probably been seen by many as the two part "Unknown People" episode on the classic TV series but if you haven't seen the feature film of this story do so. Coates gives a great performance as Lois Lane and seems to come the closest of any actress who has portrayed this character to being the Lois that was depicted in the comics. (When she called Clark Kent a Pantywaist she meant it!) During one scene Clark almost gives away his true identity when he advises terrified townsfolk about the subterranean visitors "Go to your homes lock your doors and windows let me handle this". He then bolts away and Lois turns to the Oil well boss and exclaims "He always does that, gets himself into a jam and then runs away" Classic Lois Lane! While the effects by today's standards seem antiquated and the Mole Men/Unknown People aren't as scary as alien characters that frequent TV shows today they aren't to be missed.

Before Henry Cavill, before Brandon Routh, before Dean Cain, even before Christopher Reeve but after Kirk Alyn we had George Reeves as Superman. Make no mistake the man was iconic and many would argue the real Superman as he was in over 100 episodes of the original Superman television series.

Here in his first and sadly due to his passing last big screen adventure Superman has to tackle mysterious creatures that have come up through a drilling site.

This "Movie" is actually a two parter from the television series that they stuck together and released in cinemas. For that reason it's only an hour long but is just the right length for such a brief story.

It's not action packed, the creatures aren't super villians and no super powers are really seen. This is a more subtle approach and see's the citizens as the antagonists as they rally together into a mob (As people probably would in such a situation)

I didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did but it's a nice short bit of take your brain out entertainment and considerably better than anything Cavill has done as the worlds most famous superhero.

The Good:

Simple story

Well written

A more realistic approach

The Bad:

The Mole People look ridiculous

Superman and the Mole Men (1951)

*** (out of 4)

Reporters Clark Kent (George Reeves) and Lois Lane (Phyllis Coates) are sent to Texas to do a story on an oil rig that has dug six feet into the ground but soon the big story becomes the mole men that have crawled out of the hole. I really wasn't expecting too much at of this film but it turned out to be pretty entertaining in the same form that a lot of science fiction "B" movies are from this period. The most shocking thing is how good the story is. Sure, it only runs 58-minutes but there's really no dry spells in the film, although I wish the mole men had more to do in the story besides be chased around. Superman also doesn't get too much screen time but when he's on he really shines especially one scene where he must disarm a group of men who want to kill the creature. Reeves is excellent in the roles of Kent and Superman and I loved his no nonsense way of handling everything. Coates was also very good in her role as is Jeff Corey as the nutty local who wants the creatures dead. He makes for a great villain and really delivers in each scene he's in. The special effects are quite campy but they just add to the entertainment value of the film.